But rather than return the gesture, his teammate looked away and instead offered a half-hearted fist-bump. According to Pagenaud, after the late-race “NASCAR move” Newgarden pulled, the young star was lucky to get that.

“I think if it wasn’t me (he did that to), he would be in the fence with somebody else,” a usually reserved Pagenaud said after Saturday’s night race. Pagenaud added that after what Newgarden did, he “absolutely” lost trust in his Team Penske teammate. “And respect, too. He doesn’t have respect for me.”

What had the reigning champion so angry after the race occurred with less than 30 laps to go in the Verizon IndyCar Series’ final oval event of the season. The Frenchman had stripped the lead from Newgarden coming out of a pit stop, but Newgarden came storming back, determined to regain the position.

En route to his series-leading fourth win of the year, the newest member of the Penske garage banged wheels with Pagenaud as he made the race-deciding pass for the lead.

A surprised Pagenaud bounced up to the high side of the track in Turn 1 and subsequently was passed by Scott Dixon.

Pagenaud, irate his teammate would have the gall to even try such a risky maneuver into him told his crew over the radio, “That’s unbelievable. He hit me!”

Newgarden, who saw no problem with the maneuver, cruised to victory and expanded his points lead to 31 over Saturday night’s runner-up Scott Dixon, 42 points over Helio Castroneves (who finished fourth) and 43 points ahead of Pagenaud, who finished third.

Safe to say if the Penske boys were playing nice before, they aren’t anymore. Mark down Saturday night, Aug. 26, at Gateway Motorsports Park as the night the Team Penske sandbox got a whole lot more unfriendly. The way Pagenaud sees it, the move Newgarden used to get around him was the opening salvo in what should now be a highly entertaining heavyweight fight to the finish between at least two of Penske’s finest.

“I’ve never seen Scott do that to his teammates in his career, his whole career,” Pagenaud said. “I respect the hell out of this guy here. Four-time champ. You know you can race him. … As a teammate (with Newgarden), I think we need to work together. Because if we don’t, (Dixon) wins the race, and it’s terrible for the team. That’s the kind of thing that’s disappointing.”

Pagenaud hadn’t yet spoken to Newgarden about the incident.

Newgarden, for his part, didn’t think there was much to discuss. When he learned of Pagenaud’s ire, he shrugged it off.

“He knows we’re racing,” said Newgarden, who delivered Penske’s fifth straight victory. “He knows we’re going to race in the future. We’re going to race for many years. This isn’t the first time we’ll battle, I’m sure. Hopefully he knows next time it’s getting a little tight in the corner, give me a little more room.”

Newgarden seems to have the support of his boss. After the race team owner Roger Penske said he told his drivers that after 40 laps to go, the gloves could come off.

“It was a good pass,” Penske said. “They were tight. (Newgarden) certainly didn’t get any room. But there were a lot of guys squeezing each other down the front straight. … At the end, Josef drove a great race. And it was good to see three of our cars in the top four.”

Regardless of who is on the right end of this intrasquad scuffle, their is no debate that one of the main benefactors of their skirmish was the fans — especially those in attendance.

The jostling between teammates was a thrilling ending in front of about 40,000 at Gateway Motorsports Park.

While the racing wasn’t fantastic — Penske cars led 240 of 248 laps — there wasn’t a shortage of excitement.

A wild night of IndyCar didn’t even wait for the green flag to wave for the craziness to begin. Tony Kanaan kicked off the race by spinning out and crashing during the final pace lap and setting the race off under caution.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver would later return but raced multiple laps down for the majority of the race before coming off the track after 168 laps for mechanical issues. When asked what the problem was by an NBC Sports Network reporter, all Kanaan said was “Talk to Chip.”

Tony Kanaan kicked off the race by spinning out and crashing during the final pace lap and setting the race off under caution.

Kaanan’s spinout in Turn 1 turned out to be a harbinger of things to come. When the race finally went green five laps in, pole-sitter Will Power lost control of his car and slammed into the outside wall of Turn 1. The wreck collected Takuma Sato and Ed Carpenter, whose car frighteningly jumped atop Power’s. Photos of the car on Twitter showed clear tire marks across the top and side of the driver’s cockpit and directly in front of Power’s steering wheel.

Power and Carpenter were checked, cleared and released by IndyCar medical personnel, but their cars were too damaged to return to the race. Sato didn’t require any medical attention, but his Andretti Autosport team was not able to make repairs, so he also was out.

Power attributed his loss of control to a “super slippery” surface. Carpenter confirmed the diagnosis, telling NBC Sports Network the surface was very slick. He also said that the Indy Lights Series race, which ran just before the Verizon IndyCar Series, probably left a lot of rubber on the track and made it difficult to get the tires warmed up.

After the race, a couple drivers suggested the pre-race fireworks show might have left some residue on the track that it made the track a little more slick.

Whatever the cause, the wreck was a disaster for Power who was 42 points back of Newgarden in the championship entering the night. He now finds himself 83 points back and likely out of contention leaving Newgarden, Dixon, Castroneves and Pagenaud as the final four heading into the final two races at Watkins Glen International and the double-points finale at Sonoma Raceway.

Sebastien Bourdais, who was making his first start since being seriously injured in a May 20 Indianapolis 500 qualifying crash, finished 10th.

“It wasn’t an easy race,” Bourdais said. “We knew the car wasn’t perfect and I had some really complicated restarts. I don’t know what was going on, but I got loose three times and I almost stuffed it, and so I went to the back of the pack. The guys did a really good job in the pits and got us back in contention there at the end.”

Ayello writes for the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network. Contributing: The Associated Press